Arisia and Art Books

It has been a very busy couple of weeks with a lot of good news. Let's start with a couple of announcements:

I'm very excited to announce that the Inspired by ArtOrder challenge book is finally available for pre-order! Check it out here: http://www.theartorder.com/blog/inspiredartbook

Some of the amazing art in the book: left to right: Rebecca Yanovskaya, Wylie Beckert, Marc Scheff, Jon Picacio, Tara Larsen Chang, Kristina Carroll

I can't tell you how excited I am for this book. Not only is it a stunning group of artists and stories, Jon Schindehette did an exquisite job of putting it together. It's a very limited run- so don't miss out!

Speaking of books: I am honored to announce that I had three pieces accepted into the 3rd annual Infected By Art Book!

Leviathan Charcoal 18 x 24

House of Leaves Charcoal 18 x 24

Intelligent Design Oil 6 x 6

There are so many wonderful artists in this and the judges for this annual were several people I have a great deal of admiration for, so it felt extra wonderful to get into this book. Thank you!

Also,  I had the pleasure of showing work in the Arisia Art Show this past week and had a great experience.  My good friend Lee Moyer was the Artist Guest of Honor and so it was extra great to get to see so much of his work (he had over 100 pieces in the show!) and catch up a bit with him.  But the good news doesn't stop there. I arrived at the show on Saturday to find a few surprised on my art: 

That's TWO awards! Frog Queen's Revenge won the Chairman's Choice award  and Dragonslayer Artist Guest of Honor award. (Lee had to run it by the committee. It's a common problem within this community, I think, as so many of us know each other already) 

And if that weren't enough, Dragonslayer found a new home with artist Max Martelli! (who had some lovely Lovecraftian pieces on the panel next to me) I was sort of sad to see it go as this is one of my favorite pieces but glad it has  found a new home with someone who enjoys it!

Max taking Dragonslayer home with him

So thank you Arisia, for being such an enjoyable experience! I will be doing Boskone's art show as well next month, so here's hoping for another good run! 

Finally: February is just around the corner which means, you guessed it, the 3rd annual Month of Love challenge! 

  

We have a shiny new website and an all-star roster of artists this year. Click on the banner to see what's new and how YOU can join.

Ok- that's all for now. Check back soon for more art and news!

Spectrum Fantastic Art Live! A slightly belated post.

So- this is long overdue but Spectrum was awesome and deserves some more attention, even though it was nearly two months ago. (what. It's finally been sunny in New England and I need Vitamin D)

The first couple years I went to Spectrum as an attendee. This was great because I got to see everyone and go to all the panels and stuff. It also means I got to do some recon before actually making the plunge as an exhibitor. This year, I wanted to try out this whole table thing finally and see what happened. It was a lot of fun- I met a ton of new people that I probably wouldn't have met if I was just going around and finding everyone I already knew. And most of the people I knew stopped by to say hello anyways. Spectrum is also such a good community that if I wanted, I felt completely comfortable leaving for a while to walk around or do/see a panel or two. Affordable and friendly, it was a good choice for dipping my toe into the solo exhibitor ocean. Having the smart and savvy Scott Bakal around  out was also a huge help.

It's me! Photo by Tara Larsen Chang

Quick thoughts on a having a table for the first time: 

• Do your research. Find out what sort of show/audience it is, what sells and what doesn't. Look at pictures of other people's booths. Email them, ask questions. I got so much good advice both before and during the convention- it was a terrific learning experience.
•  Everything I read said bring less than you think you need, especially for a first con. Marketing says fewer choices yield more sales. With that in mind-  I still brought too much especially knowing Spectrum is not a buying crowd. I had limited choices- which was good (basically all my sales were two images) but still brought more than I needed in quantity of prints for example. 
• Placement counts. I was very lucky to get a"sidewall" artist alley table. Traffic and visibility was great for us- but after seeing the rest of the traditional artist alley set up, I won't take the chance again and will invest in a booth. Much better for welcoming people in to look at the art and presentation. At this sort of show, where most of the reason you are there is to show to other professionals, the odd collector and make connections, presentation makes a difference. 
• Just like portfolios- show the sort of work you want to do more of. I didn't sell a ton but had commission inquiries  based on what I brought. It also gave me the opportunity to show some work that wasn't traditional portfolio stuff  but that I loved and got some good attention.
• Engage. Stand up, smile and chat. If your voice isn't hoarse or gone by the end of the convention, you're doing it wrong. Try to avoid having a table barrier between you and people unless your chief traffic is signatures or sketches. If you are going to draw- try to do it in an engaging way  (outside your booth or standing in a way that welcomes people to watch and ask questions) so people don't feel like they are bugging you if they want to say hi. 

Fantastic Women panel

Courtesy of Spectrum Fantastic Art Live

I am very grateful to Winona Nelson for including me on this panel. She asked some great questions and gave some terrific insight. There were some smart ideas and questions. We got a lot of positive feedback and continued discussions after. My biggest regret is that we only had one hour- as this conversation clearly only touched the tip of the iceberg. Sooo much to be said about that panel, but it's being worked up for a recap and follow up by the community so for now I will just mention some brief thoughts:

• I was worried that we'd be preaching to the choir but there was a healthy mix of both men and women in the audience. That made me very happy. 
• There is no single way to be a woman in illustration. Even with our small panel of intelligent, thoughtful women, we had a variety of opinions and experiences both good and bad. It was worth noting that none of us had children though- and that was a POV that needed some more representation.  The general consensus from the crowd was that having a supportive and reliable partner was paramount to doing both art and family successfully.
•  Rebecca Yanovskaya made some great comments about being a working illustrator putting it in perspective with women's roles in our society. Mainly: Illustration is a job. Mothers work all the time, so why can't that work be illustration. I think there's a lot more to be said on that subject but it's an important idea. She also talked about how it's often hard for women to feel confident in their choice of subject matter and finding their own voice in this field because of the stereotypes that still exist.
• Zoe Robinson is one smart cookie and is a great gift as an AD on some high profile properties with Fantasy Flight. She's always thinking about how women are represented in the genre and pushing for smarter choices regarding characters in her work. She often has to fight for fair representation and sometimes educate others why a particular idea might be sexist or insensitive.  She doesn't back down from the hard questions and is very thoughtful. She made a really good analogy that, as women generally we are starting at a lower level than our male counterparts and have further level-ups before we're taken seriously.
• Camilla D' Errico is thoughtful, funny and confident. Proof that having a great attitude about your capabilities and options goes a long way. She, like me, has had very few negative experiences related to being a "female artist".  Mostly guys thought it was neat that we liked "guy" things like comics and games and we had some very good mentors who were men. (though I don't think either of us had a lot of female influences early on) She brought up one of my favorite quotes by George R.R. Martin. He was asked, "There’s one thing that’s interesting about your books. I noticed that you write women really well and really different. Where does that come from? " Martin answered: "You know, I’ve always considered women to be people."
• Annie Stegg is an amazing artist and unbelievably sweet and humble to boot. She talked about being hired as an artist at a company partly because they needed to broaden their perspective and get a woman's input. It's great that companies are starting to realize their shortcomings on this matter (or not. Ahem Ubisoft)  Still,  I look forward to a time when women are not considered a novelty both in the creation and in representation of the field. 
• Winona Nelson also had some input on being sort of a lone wolf in a company. She discussed both overcoming the barriers we create for ourselves (envisioning struggles that don't end up actually being a big deal) and the real barriers such as having to to fight to get her own bathroom. (the guys had commandeered the ladies room as well and didn't want to give it up).
• There is is still a long way to go on this subject and it helps no one to be ignorant about it. My eyes were opened to a few things that I was not aware of  about how women are treated and perceived in this industry still. The thing is- this it not an isolated trend and is indicative of a larger cultural problem that still needs addressing. Much of our obstacles as women creatives come from our culture but they also come from the barriers we erect for ourselves in response to our culture. I think as purveyors of imagination- we as fantastic artists hold a great responsibility in regards how we want women (and all "minorities" for that matter) to be treated.  Change grows from imagination. 

Courtesy of Spectrum Fantastic Art Live

Courtesy of Spectrum Fantastic Art Live

All in all- even though I didn't sell a ton,  it was still a good experience.  I always forget to take pictures at these things but here are a few good moments.

With Cynthia Sheppard

With Brynn Metheney

Shady KC BBQ at Jack's Stack with a bunch of shady artist folks.

Blue-Green Beauties Zoe Robinson, Lauren Panepinto, Clark Huggins, (Lucky guy!) Rebecca Yanovskaya

Too much fun is a good thing. Travis Lewis, Dawn Carlos, John Brassil

You can check out even more of what happened (and see me a few times too!) in these cool recap videos:

I even got a fancy professional artist photo taken by Greg Preston! He was hired by Spectrum to to a series of these and they came out gorgeous. You can check out a bunch of them on his blog here: http://www.sampselprestonphotography.blogspot.com/2014/05/spectrum-fantastic-art-live.html

Photo by Greg Preston for Spectrum Fantastic Art Live

Alright- that's plenty for now. See you at next year's Spectrum! 

Spectrum Live! New art, panel info and table info!

It's time for Spectrum Fantastic Art Live again! And this year I have finally broken down and got a table. To celebrate, I have created a few new original oil paintings that I will be debuting there this weekend:

Blue Mage Oil on Panel 5 x 5

Dragon Mage Oil on Panel  6 x 6

Fae Mage Oil on Panel 5 x 5

In addition to my new art, I will be displaying a few other originals as well as selling some prints of some of my favorite pieces.

Minotaur Oil on Panel 16 x 20

Grey Widow Oil on Panel 6 x 6

Blue Assassin Oil on Panel 6 x 6

Ascend Oil on Panel 5 x 5

Dragonslayer Charcoal 18 x 24

 I will also be selling prints of Dragonslayer, the Minotaur and House of Leaves below including a few others.

House of Leaves

AAAAND if that weren't enough- I am also going to be participating in the Fantastic Women panel Saturday at 2pm. I was very honored to be asked to join this panel and am very much looking forward to the conversation. Here is the info:

Fantastic Women! [room 2505 A&B] 2pm — 3pm 
Illustration & fantasy art used to be a male-dominated industry: has that changed or are their still challenges woman artists face? Winona Nelson [M], Rebecca Yanovskaya, Annie Stegg, Zoë Robinson, Kristina Carroll, Camilla d’Errico discusse the good, the bad, and the ugly of working in today’s marketplace.

So please come find me and say hello, buy something or just sit down and draw with me a bit! I will be at Table 17:

Spectrum Live sketches

Even though it's already been weeks since Spectrum Live, it is still fresh on my mind. The people I met, the art I saw, the presentations I took pages of notes in... it was 3 days of inspiration packed joy for this little fantasy artist. I am now on vacation but I wanted to share a few sketchbook highlights from the weekend before May fades too much.

Playing around with adding color to a quick plane sketch. I need to get more involved in this sort of experimenting in my sketchbook.

This guy was keeping watch outside our window. How appropriate! I think we all got sketches of him.

Lauren Panepinto- Art Director and master legging wearer.She likes when artists put watermarks on their art for easy locating. Fun fact: Her pinterest is a black hole of awesome that will suck hours from your life and leave you wanting more. 

Illuxcon Sketch Dump

So I went to Illuxcon this weekend with some amazing artist friends: Kurt and Zelda and Rob Rey. All you have to do is go check out the guest list to figure out what an amazing time I had. It's a small con, only around 200 attendees, but concentrated with some of the best artists in the industry, fascinating panels and lots of great conversations. In case you haven't heard me talk about this at length already: the people in the sci-fi/fantasy industry boasts of the most generous, supportive, down to earth sorts of folks around. I used nearly 20 pages of sketchbook during the con, so without further ado, here are some highlights:

Spot the art-stars! Sculptors Thomas Kuebler and Jordu are here...


Jordu and Thomas did an amazing collaborative sculpture during the con. Here's a pic swiped from Christopher Burdett's blog:


Here we have art directors Jon Schindehette (D&D) and Jeremy Cranford of (WoW) who both took time out of a very busy schedule to talk to me about my portfolio. You guys rock! Also Kurt Huggins.

Scott Altmann, another favorite.

A couple of Chris Burdett and Rob Rey.

Drawing people sleeping is fun- and creepy. Here's Kurt.

And Zelda sleeping in the car. Then while listening to Florence and the Machine's Rabbit Heart, I started sketching a rabbit and just felt like continuing the theme. Introducing Fungarabbit and Bunthulu:

© 2009 Kristina Carroll.

Some exciting projects on the horizon so expect more soon!